Halting AstraZeneca vaccine across Europe weakens an already faltering rollout

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/16/world/covid-19-coronavirus#halting-a-key-vaccine-across-europe-weakens-an-already-faltering-rollout

The suspension of the use of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine by most governments across Europe has further set back an already fraught inoculation campaign on the continent even as the bloc’s main drug regulator said there was no indication that vaccination has caused side effects such as blood clots.

No country in the European Union is on pace to reach its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of its population by September. Hundreds of millions of people across the continent are still constrained by some of the most severe coronavirus restrictions in the world, and millions more are facing the prospect of rules being tightened further to tackle a third wave of the coronavirus.

The head of the European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday that regulators were still studying concerns about the possibility of rare side effects with the AstraZeneca vaccine, including blood clots and abnormal bleeding. But there was “no indication that vaccination has caused these conditions,” Emer Cooke, the agency’s executive director, told a news conference.

“While the investigation is ongoing, we are currently still firmly convinced that the benefits of the AstraZeneca vaccine in preventing Covid-19, with its associated risk of hospitalization, outweigh the risk of the side effects,” she added.

The reassurance, a day after several major European countries suspended AstraZeneca vaccinations, added to the confusion and mixed messages surrounding the continent’s vaccine rollout. The stakes could scarcely be higher — delaying shots to tens of millions of people in the midst of a third wave of the virus and possibly undermining public confidence in the vaccine, which could have implications far beyond Europe.

The European Union’s vaccine efforts have been marked by political infighting, mixed messaging to the public, a shortage of supply and a lack of solidarity. And with many member states’ vaccination strategies heavily reliant on the vaccine made by AstraZeneca, the decision to suspend its use while the bloc’s regulatory body looks into concerns about its safety will slow things down even more.

Spain, France, Italy, Germany and others have halted the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. All of the governments in Europe that suspended it said they were acting out of an abundance of caution while the bloc’s regulatory body reviewed the data.

The World Health Organization was quick to react to moves by European governments, hoping to prevent a broader panic. It said on Monday that there was no evidence to suggest that the AstraZeneca vaccine was unsafe.

Millions of people in dozens of countries have received AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine with few reports of ill effects, and its prior testing in tens of thousands of people found it to be safe.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in partnership with Oxford University, was designed to be the workhorse of the global vaccination effort — with some two billion doses ordered for use in more than 70 countries this year.

It is being sold using a nonprofit model and is far cheaper than other vaccines. It can be stored more easily and has already started to be shipped to low- and middle-income countries that signed onto the global vaccine sharing program Covax. ...

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